Shakespeare Behind the Scenes

COMEDIES

TRAGEDY PLAYS

HISTORY PLAYS

1. #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 1.

I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.

Behind the scenes:

Justice Shallow is complaining to

Parson Evans that John Falstaff

has wronged him and will make

an issue of it.

1 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 1.

In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Behind the scenes: After his uncle, John of Gaunt tells Richard II there are two feuding noblemen needing attention, the King describes the noblemen, Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray in rage, as both being deaf as the sea and hasty as fire.

2 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 3

The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet.

Behind the scenes: After the King tells Henry Bolingbroke he will mourn but not revenge his death should Henry fall in the duel, Henry assures the king that he is certain of victory over his opponent whom he accuses of having murdered Gloucester (the King’s) uncle- while leaving the best till last- Henry refers to the King’s glory which will be bestowed upon Henry for this.

3 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 3

Truth hath a quiet breast.

Behind the scenes: Thomas Mowbray defends himself knowing he hides many secrets that he cannot speak about.

4 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 3.

Then thus I turn me from my country's light,

To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.

Behind the scenes: Instead of allowing the duel to take place, King Richard passes sentence on both- he banishes Bolingbroke for six years but Mowbray is banished for life- this is Mowbray’s reaction to the sentence.

5 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 3

But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know;

And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.

Behind the scenes: Since Mowbray is banished forever, Bolingbroke asks him to confess and thus leave without a guilty conscience to which Mowbray replies that he (Bolingbroke) himself and the king knows a number of secrets, one being that King Richard had a hand in killing his own uncle Gloucester and even if Mowbray could have prevented this death, it was not he, Mowbray, who killed Gloucester. Finally Mowbray predicts the King will bitterly regret this.

6 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 3

All places that the eye of heaven visits

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.

Teach thy necessity to reason thus;

There is no virtue like necessity.

Behind the scenes: When Bolingbroke complains since he has committed no crime, six years of banishment is hard to bear, his father John of Gaunt tells him to treat it as an adventure and consider it as an opportunity for new experiences, in other words, from a lemon make a lemonade.

7 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT I Scene 3.

O, who can hold a fire in his hand

By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite

By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow

By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?

O, no! the apprehension of the good

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:

Behind the scenes: Bolingbroke gives his reasons why his father’s advice is not possible to put into practice- an example- just as you cannot stop being hungry by imagining a feast, neither can you stop sorrow by imagining joy.

8 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT II Scene 1.

O, but they say the tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony:

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,

For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.

Behind the scenes: Before he dies, John of Gaunt (Bolingbroke’s father? wishes to offer some advice to prevent Richard making foolish choices, like going to war with Ireland, taking over lands from the nobility to pay for his pompous court... When he is told Richard is not going to listen for a moment John of Gaunt reiterates the words of dying men carry some weight.

9 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT II Scene 1.

And thus expiring do foretell of him:

His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,

For violent fires soon burn out themselves;

Behind the scenes: When John of Gaunt is told what he has to say to Richard would just be wasted breath, Gaunt makes a prediction that Richard will not last long- predictions from dying men in Shakespeare’s plays are taken seriously for they come true.

10 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT II Scene 1.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,--

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

Behind the scenes: Probably the most celebrated piece in the whole of the play- calling upon the real values of kingship which is to serve the realm not vice-versa- again spoken by the Dying John of Gaunt.

11 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT II Scene 1.

The ripest fruit first falls.

Behind the scenes: This is King Richard’s comment when he is told John Gaunt is dead.

12 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT II Scene 3.

Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues

A banish'd traitor: all my treasury

Is yet but unfelt thanks, which more enrich'd

Shall be your love and labour's recompense.

Behind the scenes: Bolingbroke having returned to England welcomes Ross and Willoughby who have defected to his side though all he can offer them is only thanks since all his goods and titles have been wrongfully confiscated by the King.

13 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 1.

Eating the bitter bread of banishment.

Behind the scenes: This is from Bolingbroke’s speech in condemning to death two of Richard’s friends, Bushy and Greene, claiming they had led astray a noble king, and set him against his queen, living lavishly while he, Bolingbroke was eating the bitter bread of banishment.

14 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 2.

Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;

Behind the scenes: When Richard returns from Ireland, landing in Wales and is told the sombre news that Bolingbroke has won over the country and the nobles to his side, he states that he, Richard, is God’s anointed and therefore will be protected by Him for nothing can wash away the balm from an anointed king.

15 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 2.

O, call back yesterday, bid time return!

Behind the scenes: Richard greets Salisbury whom he expects to have the command of the Welsh army ready. The above exclamation is Lord Salisbury’s lament when he tells Richard the unfortunate news that the 20 thousand Welsh soldiers, thinking Richard dead in Ireland, all defected to Bolingbroke.

16 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 2.

Let ’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.

Behind the scenes: When Richard learns of the execution of his friends, that his uncle York whom he had left in charge of the realm has also gone over to Bolingbroke and Richard has lost all his men, lands and home he gives in to total despair.

17 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 2.

And nothing can we call our own but death

And that small model of the barren earth

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings.

Behind the scenes: This is part of the same speech of despair... From now on, when Richard has completely lost all, his speech becomes noble and intensely poetical.

18 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 3.

He is come to open

The purple testament of bleeding war.

Behind the scenes: Richard tells Bolingbroke (via Northumberland) Bolingbroke will not take the land (crown) without committing treason and usurping it from the rightful king causing English blood to flow throughout the land, foreshadowing the civil war which will ensue through the following reigns of Henry IV and V.

19 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT III Scene 3.

And my large kingdom for a little grave,

A little little grave, an obscure grave.

Behind the scenes: In spite that Bolingbroke claims he only wants his lands back and not usurp the crown, when a messenger from Bolingbroke returns Richard has no illusions and asks what is the King to do and goes through a list of things he ironically knows Bolingbroke expects him to do and one of them is exchange his kingdom for a little... little grave...

20 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT IV Scene 1.

Gave his body to that pleasant country’s earth,

And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,

Under whose colours he had fought so long.

Behind the scenes: As accusations for the murder of the Duke of Gloucester are brought up again, Bolingbroke wants to call back Mowbray from exile to clarify the matter but Bishop Carlisle says he died valiantly in a Crusade. So Bolingbroke cannot openly accuse Richard of Thomas Glouster’s murder.

21 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT IV Scene 1.

A mockery king of snow.

Behind the scenes: Uncrowned and dethroned, Richard, who once compared himself to the sun now stands next to the new sun Bolingbroke and in his presence, since Bolingbroke is now the sun, wishes to melt like a snow king.

22 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT V Scene 2.

As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,

Thinking his prattle to be tedious.

Behind the scenes: In describing Bolingbroke’s coronation scene and Richard’s exit, the Duke of York says it was the contrary to what happens in the theatre- Richard who was leaving the stage was derided whilst Bolingbroke, who was entering, was exulted.

23 #Shakespeare King Richard II. ACT V Scene 5.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;

Behind the scenes: Richard alone in his cell has amazing soliloquies with himself- the above comment is but one of many of his reflections.

The weakest goes to the wall.

Behind the scenes: Two servants from Juliet’s household are discussing their hatred for Rome’s household- Sampson says if he sees a Montague he will walk near the wall and let the enemy walk in the gutter. Gregory tells him in that case Samson is the weak one because weaklings get pushed up against the wall.

2. #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 1.

All his successors gone before him have done ’t;

and all his ancestors that come after him may.

Behind the scenes:

Slender is highlighting his cousin’s

Justice Shallow, legal abilities.

Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.

Behind the scenes: Seeing Abram, a member of the Montague household, Sampson wants to start a fight and beckons Gregory to do the same.

3 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 1.

It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies

love.

Behind the scenes:

As a parson, Evans misinterprets

Slender’s comment on an old coat

having lice as something to do

with marriage.

An hour before the worshipp’d sun

Peered forth the golden window of the east.

Benvolio explains to his aunt, Lady Montague, when she enquires where her son is, that before dawn Benvolio took a walk and saw Romeo do the same in a dejected manner, later we discover Romeo is pining for Rosaline who ignores him.

4.#Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 1.

Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is

good gifts.

Behind the scenes:

Parson Evans is describing why

Miss Anne Page is a good suitor

for Slender-

As is the bud bit with an envious worm

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,

Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.

Behind the scenes:

Benvolio explains to Romeo’s Mother that her son appears to be like a flower bud that has been poisoned from inside by parasites.

5 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 1.

Mine host of the Garter.

Behind the scenes:

Parson Evan states that the third

umpire to judge Shallow’s case

against Falstaff is the Host of the Inn,

which is always an obliging character

speculating on fun and gain.

He that is strucken blind cannot forget

The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.

Behind the scenes: Benvolio tries to explain to Romeo to look at other girls but Romeo answers that by doing so will only remind him of Rosaline’s beauty just like a man who goes blind can’t forget the precious eyesight he lost.

6. #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 2

I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book

of Songs and Sonnets here.

Behind the scenes:

Slender has just seen Anne Page and sighs

because, being inarticulate, his book of

sonnets would serve him better than his

money to woo her.

One fire burns out another’s burning,

One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.

Behind the scenes: Benvolio encourages Romeo to mix in the feast given by the Capulets and maybe put out one fire by starting another since a new pain will make the one he already has seem less.

7 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 3.

That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory

That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.

Behind the Scenes: Lady Capulet is describing the qualities of Paris so as to persuade Juliet to marry him, saying that Paris is considered truly handsome and anyone who marries him will be admired just as much.

8 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 4

For I am proverb’d with a grandsire phrase.

Behind the scenes: When Romeo’s friends urge him to dance at the feast, Romeo, still pining for Rosaline, refuses saying there’s a proverb that fits him perfectly which is, if you don’t play the game you cannot lose.

9 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 4

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you!

She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone

On the fore-finger of an alderman,

Drawn with a team of little atomies

Athwart men’s noses as they lie...

Behind the Scenes: These are the opening lines of Mercutio’s famed Queen Mab speech which although is based on a world of fable is nonetheless alluding to Queen Elizabeth and to a more darker vision of reality.

“Convey,” the wise it call. “Steal!”

foh! a fico for the phrase!

Behind the scenes:

Nym, Pistol and Falstaff are

discussing the essentials of stealing-

After Nym has stated the best way

to steal is in the shortest time possible,

Pistol adds that the “educated” term

for stealing is “convey” and could not

care a fig for the word “steal”.

10 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 4

Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,

Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.

Behind the scenes: Mercutio describes the coach where Queen Mab rides- this is significant because it tells us the various actions the coach rides over describing the depravity of society’s ills.

12 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 4.

This is that very Mab

That plaits the manes of horses in the night

And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,

Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes.

This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,

That presses them and learns them first to bear,

Making them women of good carriage.

This is she—

Behind the scenes: Mercutio decribes in detail what Mab does which is to tangle the hair in horses' manes at night and make the tangles hard in the dirty hairs, which bring bad luck if they’re untangled. Mab is the old hag who gives sham sex dreams to virgins and shows them how to clutch a lover and bear a child. She’s the one—

Let vultures gripe thy guts!

for gourd and fullam holds,

And high and low beguiles the rich and poor:

Tester I'll have in pouch when thou shalt lack,

Base Phrygian Turk!

Behind the scenes:

This is Pistol’s view on the

character of Falsaff, describing him

as a false dice that cheats all,

and that he, Pistol, will have a full

pouch when Falstaff’s is empty.

13 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 4.

True, I talk of dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.

Behind the scenes: When Romeo tells his friend to stop fantasizing, Mercutio, agrees that he is saying nothing and that dreams are the children of an idle brain, alluding to the dreams that the main characters hold are simply vain and impossible to achieve.

14 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 5.

For you and I are past our dancing days.

Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 5.

Behind the scenes: Juliet’s father is talking with a relative about the old days and encourages the young people to dance for he and those like him due to corns and other ailments are past their dancing days.

15 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 5

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;

Behind the scenes: Romeo’s reflections on when he first sees Juliet.

16 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 5

I tell you, he that can lay hold of her

Shall have the chinks.

Behind the scenes: When Romeo asks the nurse who the girl he was talking to was, she tells him that whoever marries her will be wealthy.

17 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT I Scene 5

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

Behind the scenes: When Juliet finds out her only love is the son of her enemy she says that she saw him too early without knowing who he was, and found out too late who he was.

18 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene

He jests at scars that never felt a wound...

Behind the scenes: When Benvolio tells Mercutio that Romeo doesn’t want to be found implying that he is sulking for the pains of love, Romeo says to himself that it is easy for one to scoff at scars if they had never been cut.

19 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Behind the scenes: In order to compress the play in the space of four days, Shakespeare uses the transition between day and night with a frequent light and dark image- here Romeo pictures Juliet as the sun rising from the east dispelling the night completely.

20 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2

See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!

Behind the scenes: Romeo would simply be content to be a glove in order to touch her cheek, implying the purity of his intentions.

21 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?

Behind the scenes: Juliet asks herself why did Romeo have to be Romeo- if he had not been a Montague she could have loved him.

22 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2

What ’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

Behind the scenes: Juliet is reasoning with herself that as a rose would not lose its fragrance if it were called by another name, neither would Romeo be any different if he were not called so.

23 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

For stony limits cannot hold love out.

Behind the scenes: When Juliet shows her concern for Romeo’s safety she wonders how he possibly could have entered the orchard to which Romeo answers that when in love, love can make a person do even the impossible.

24 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2

Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords.

Behind the scenes: When Juliet tells Romeo her relatives would kill him if they found him here he tells her he fears by far her displeasure (in her eye) than twenty swords from her relatives, because with love he is unbeatable.

25 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2

At lovers’ perjuries,

They say, Jove laughs.

Behind the scenes: Juliet would like to be assured that Romeo truly loves her but even if he does say he loves her, he could be lying and quotes that Jove laughs when lovers lie to each other.

26 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—

Behind the scenes: Romeo swears that his love is as true as the moon that light up the tree tops with silver.

27. Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,

That monthly changes in her circled orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable

Behind the scenes: Romeo had just sworn to Juliet by the moon that he loves her but she tells him not to swear by the moon because the moon is always changing mood and would not wish that he too be so changeable.

28 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2

I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.

Behind the scenes: Dickens was an

euphemism for Devil and Mistress

Page uses it in trying to recall

Falstaff’s name.

The god of my idolatry.

Behind the scenes: Juliet tells Romeo that if he must swear his love on something to do it on his own sweet self which she adores as her idol.

29 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be

Ere one can say, “It lightens.”

Behind the scenes: Juliet tells Romeo not to swear his love because she cannot take part in so sudden a commitment, it is too sudden, like lightning that flashes and consumes itself before you can say “lightning”

30 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

Behind the scenes: Juliet tells Rome their love is a bud, which by the next time they meet may bloom like a flower does in summer time.

31 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,

Like softest music to attending ears!

Behind the scenes: When Romeo hears Juliet call his name he says lovers calling out each other’s name in the night is silver sweet and the loveliest musical sound ever heard.

32 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,

Behind the scenes: Juliet says goodnight to Romeo with the above quote which has become renown.

32 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 3

O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:

For nought so vile that on the earth doth live

But to the earth some special good doth give,

Nor aught so good but strain’d from that fair use Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;

And vice sometimes by action dignified.

Behind the scenes: Friar Laurence explains that herbs, plants, and stones all have power and that if something is evil on earth, earth provides an antidote. But if something is used in the wrong way it becomes bad, hence virtue turns to vice if abused. Whilst at the same time vice becomes virtue if used in the right way

33 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 3.

Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye,

And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.

Behind the scenes: On seeing Romeo up so early Friar Laurence says, being full of care and not sleeping is what old men do and then goes on to say, young men do not have a care in the world and sleep like a log, so he figures that either Romeo has a problem or he hasn’t been to bed at all.

34 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 3

Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears.

Behind the scenes: Friar Laurence chides Romeo for being so fickle, namely that almost overnight he has changed from loving Rosaline to loving another, in effect Romeo’s groans over Rosaline are still ringing in his, (Friar Laurence) ears.

35 #Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 3.

Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.

Behind the scenes: Still harping on Romeo’s sudden change in his affection from Rosaline to Juliet Friar Laurence chides Romeo, saying how can one expect women to be faithful if men are so fickle.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

1.Troilus and Cressida. ACT I Scene 1

I have had my labour for my travail.

Behind the scenes:

Pandarus complains to Troilus

that he has received little thanks

for pursuing Troilus cause with

Cressida.

2. Troilus and Cressida. ACT I Scene 3.

Take but degree away, untune that string,

And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets

In mere oppugnancy.

Behind the Scenes

Ulysses laments on the disorder of the Greek Army and without “degree” i.e. observance of authority, chaos rules.

3. Troilus and Cressida. ACT I Scene 3.

The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come.

Behind the Scenes

Nestor, the elder Greek General is keen to have their “best” General fight the challenge from the Trojan Hector, since much is held at stake in the winning of this proposed combat.

4. Troilus and Cressida. ACT II Scene 2.

Modest doubt is call’d

The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches

To the bottom of the worst.

Behind the scenes:

Hector is claiming wisdom lies in reason, and a woman is not worth seven years of war.

5. Troilus and Cressida. ACT II Scene 3.

The common curse of mankind,—folly and ignorance.

Behind the scenes:

Thersites, Ajax scurrilous slave pours insults on Pratroclus, Achilles’ male lover, no reason in particular, except that it is in his nature to do so.

6. Troilus and Cressida. ACT III Scene 2.

All lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one.

Behind the Scenes:

What are the disadvantages to love? Troilus considers monstrous that the desire is infinite but is constrained by “limits” or circumstances, while Cressida says that exaggerated lovers’ claims are monstrous.

7. Troilus and Cressida. ACT III Scene 3.

Welcome ever smiles,

And farewell goes out sighing.

Behind the scenes:

At the Greek camp Ulysses is telling Achilles he must return to battle before people forget completely the reason for his greatness as time is fickle smiling when things go right but soon makes people forget great deeds.

8. Troilus and Cressida. ACT III Scene 3.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

Behind the scenes:

Ulysses continues to say time is envious of all- friendships, riches, beauty and seems to want to destroy it- with just one touch from nature, namely in death, we all become alike, as each one of us will die.

9. Troilus and Cressida. ACT III Scene

And give to dust that is a little gilt

More laud than gilt o’er-dusted.

Behind the scenes:

Ulysses infers that time turns all the gaudy

splendour of the past into dust.

10. Troilus and Cressida. ACT III Scene 3.

Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid

Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold,

And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,

Be shook to air.

Behind the scenes:

The Greek General Patroclus tells Achilles, who seems to be in love with a Trojan manish-woman, to shaken himself up, war awaits and this is no time for romantic musings.

11. Troilus and Cressida. ACT IV Scene 5.

His heart and hand both open and both free;

For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows;

Yet gives he not till judgment guide his bounty.

Behind the scenes:

When asked by Agamemnon who is the grieving Trojan (Cressida has been taken to the Greeks in as an exchange prisoner) Ulysses tells him it is Troilus and Ulysees’ describes Troilus in the lines above and continues in the same vein to be even more honourable than the glorious Hector.

12 #Shakespeare: Troilus & Cressida ACT IV Scene 5.

The end crowns all,

And that old common arbitrator, Time,

Will one day end it.

Behind the scenes:

Hector is quoting a Latin saying “The end crowns the work.” But with a difference, that it is not the action of man or the gods, but time, that determines the end.